The Unexpected Couple
by FandomNerd05
Summary: It is a romantic relationship between Gibbs and Bishop. I know that there is a large age gap so you don't have to tell me. I'm open to criticism on my writing but I ship them and don't want to debate why or why not you agree with shipping them. If you ship them I hope you love this story, if you don't feel free to read it anyway or don’t.
1. The Beginning

Bishop is incredible at her job as an analyst for the NSA. She saw the types of attacks that could come and wrote national security strategy on them with great detail. This was extremely helpful and was a good thing until someone used one of her strategies as a blueprint and executed it. A pen doubling as a recording device, exactly as written, was found on the Secretary of the Navy when she was at NCIS in MTAC. Therefore on November 19th, 2013 Gibbs and DiNozzo visited the NSA to talk to the author of that security strategy and so began the story of Leroy Jethro Gibbs and Eleanor Bishop.

Gibbs and DiNozzo entered the NSA building and were greeted by NSA Special Agent Chad Flynderling, but Flynn wasnt who wrote the paper and therefore not the person Gibbs needed to find. Flynn led them to a large room where a beautiful blond haired woman sat on the floor working. She had earbuds in and was listening to music so Flynn had them stand behind her until she noticed them.

After a few moments Bishop noticed the three men standing behind her and let out a surprised gasp. She was upset with Flynn because she had told him several times not to do that but got even more upset with him when she saw the men behind him. One of them had brown hair and was fairly tall but was clearly way to interested in his physical appearance. The other man was older, his hair was greying and he had piercing blue eyes, he was extremely handsome and was tall as well. He had a commanding presence but seemed to be in no way vain like the other man.

Gibbs made direct eye contact as they shook hands bit when they let go he couldnt look away for a few seconds, its like his eyes were glued to her and it seemed the same was true for her. This moment passed and they both looked away but then Bishop stumbled over her words being thrown off by the intimidatingly handsome man in front of her. Gibbs wasnt sure why she was having trouble but found it strangely adorable. She pulled herself back together and spoke to Gibbs about her paper. She sat back down feeling her part was over but Gibbs saw that she needed to be a part of the case from that point forward. Nobody is better able to figure out the next move than the person who wrote the playbook. Flynn and Bishop were both shocked and slightly against her joining the case, but in the end Gibbs helped her up and they headed to NCIS.

She worked the remainder of the case alongside them. Gibbs seemed to be a great agent and a great boss but she didn't understand why he would want her to work the case, all her research on the spy pen was in her paper, they didn't need her for that. Then after the case ended, right as shes about to leave, Gibbs offers her a job and she finally understands. He was seeing if she had the stuff to be a part of NCIS and he decided "He'd like to keep her around." Who knows what that will mean?


	2. Cinnamon

Bishop really wanted Gibbs to like her. She constantly tried to impress him; she learned as many of his rules as she could as fast as she could, always had something when he asked for an update, she even tried to use her "gut" like he always does, but she just didn't feel like she was doing good enough. Now of course that was because he had feelings for her and was trying to hide it.

It was Christmas time and Abby was handing out tins of her ginger cookies to the team but Gibbs said he doesn't like ginger. According to DiNozzo though, he was a fan of cinnamon. She saw an opportunity to take a different approach and decided to take it. After she got home from work, she searched for the best cinnamon flavored Christmas treat all night and found the perfect coffee cake recipe. The next night she baked it, it took 5 hours to make but looked and smelled incredible so she felt it was worth it.

She gave it to him after they solved the case, claiming it was her mom's recipe so he wouldn't think she went way out of her way, which in reality she actually did. He loved it, not only was it delicious but she made it for him and that makes it ten times better in his eyes.


	3. Two Rooms, Four Agents

The team was asked to help with a murder case in Columbus, OH. The marine died of unknown causes but was clearly moved after death and they were the closest NCIS office available. There was a large sports festival going on causing all of the hotel rooms in town to be booked except for two, which luckily were at least at the same hotel. Abby and Ducky didnt come because Ducky said he had a friend who could do just as well as him that worked in Columbus and there was very little forensic evidence. Unfortunately, that still left Gibbs, DiNozzo, McGee, and Bishop. DiNozzo felt it made the most since for him to share a room with McGee and for Gibbs and Bishop to share the other.

"What do you guys think?" DiNozzo asks.

Upon weighing his other options McGee says, "Thats fine with me."

"Yeah, I guess that'll work." Bishop says with a shrug.

Gibbs slaps DiNozzo and McGee on the back of the head simultaneously, "Don't you think it would make more since for the three of us to share a room and let her have her own room?"

Talking at the same time:

"Right, of course."

"Absolutely, Boss."

"That's ridiculous, nobody should be sleeping on the floor when there is a perfectly good place to sleep available!" Bishop argues.

"If you would prefer, Boss, I can sleep in her room and you and Tony can share." offered McGee.

"No it's okay, Ill do it as long as you are comfortable with that, Bishop." Gibbs said hoping she would ask him not to.

"I'm completely comfortable."

"Okay." he said, even though he was worried it was a bad idea.

They went their separate ways to their rooms to get some sleep because it was late and they would be starting on the case first thing in the morning. DiNozzo and McGee took the room on the first floor so they headed straight to their room. Bishop and Gibbs got on the elevator to head up to the 3rd floor where their room was. The elevator and the hall were a little crowded so they both remained silent. Finally, they got to their room, Room 312; Gibbs unlocked the door and motioned for her to enter first.

She said a soft, "Thank you." and went in. He followed, shutting the door behind them.

"You sure you are fine with this?" he asked one last time, really hoping she had changed her mine.

"Yes, I'm sure. Are you? I can go to McGee and DiNozzos room."

"No, No. It's fine. You don't need to leave."

"Okay but if it's fine with you, then why do you keep asking me?"

"I just wanted to be sure. You're married and most of the time people are uncomfortable with this."

"I guess that makes since, but really I'm good. We should probably get some sleep. I'll take the couch."

"No. Take the bed. I insist."

"Okay, Thanks. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

They both got ready for bed and went to sleep. Well tried to at least, Bishop wasn't able to sleep. She just lied there awake. She couldn't help noticing how handsome and peaceful Gibbs looked as he slept there on the couch. He hadn't even pulled the bed part out, he just left it as a couch. She was feeling something but was in conflict with herself about it. So she just laid there confused to how she felt and what it meant, until finally she fell asleep.

It only took them a few days to solve the case and they had no difficulties sharing the room. At least not externally, on the other hand internal struggles were definitely present. Gibbs remained a little uncomfortable, sharing a room with a married coworker that he had feelings for but kept it to himself for the remainder of their stay in Columbus. Bishop remained confused to how she felt, she is married and he is her boss but she definitely has some feelings for him.


	4. Trouble in Paradise

Gibbs and Jake became very close. Gibbs was hoping that befriending Bishops husband would lessen his affection for her. He kept growing their friendship, the team even called them "the best friends". Unfortunately, his plan did not work, the closer he got to Jake the more he saw Bishop and the more his feelings grew. Gibbs even started playing racquetball so that they were doing something without Bishop tagging along. The problem with that is Jake talked about her practically nonstop when they played. Gibbs really needed away to get rid of his feelings for her but nothing worked. Gibbs would never pursue something with her when she was married and Bishop would never cheat on her husband. Neither of them even knew the other liked them and never would have. If only, Jake had as strong of a set of morals as they did.

Gibbs had a bad feeling something was up with Jake. There was a very obvious rift between him and Bishop that the whole team picked up on just by being around her. He just didn't know what exactly he suspected and even if he did he would never mention it. Bishops personal life is her business and he can't really trust his judgement when it comes to her. He just stuck by her and was there for her anytime she needed him.

Bishop had been seeing the all signs and ignoring them. First there was the woman in the cab, than the separation between them that got worse after he got home from Dubai, and finally his secretiveness about why he wasn't at the hotel when the bomb went off but she wasn't going to read into it. She told herself he experienced something traumatic and just needed time. The lunch was too much to ignore though. He was at their old lunch spot with another woman, something was definitely up and she was going to find out what.

Her mind went to an affair first, of course, but Jake would never hurt her like that so it had to be something else. She thought back over everything and realized what was clearly happening, he was in trouble at work. She just couldn't understand why he wouldn't tell her. She needed someone else's perspective. She needed to talk to Gibbs; there is no one she could possibly rely on more than him.

It was almost one a.m., Jake was gone for the night, she couldn't stop thinking about it long enough to fall asleep, and she knew Gibbs would still be up working on his boat so she headed over to his house.

Gibbs is surprised to look up and find Bishop walking down the stairs to his basement so late at night. What could she be doing there at that time of night? Why isn't she at home with Jake? She tells him that Jake is working and he can see she isn't convinced thats where he is. He knew something was up, should he tell her? He can't say that everything is going to be fine because he doesn't think it is but he really shouldn't say anything negative. He decides the best thing to do is be neutral and let her talk it out. He just tries to help her draw her own conclusions. She doesn't know what to suspect so he just tells her to ask him about his feelings. The problem may be classified but his feelings about it won't be.

Bishop decides to take the morning off, with Gibbs' permission, to talk to Jake; she felt it was best not to wait any longer. She is sitting in their place when Jake comes in, her presence surprises him. He almost seems alarmed but she cuts right to the chase, they need to talk.

She tells him how she has been trying to figure out what is going on with him. She says that at first she thought he was having an affair and his facially expression changes immediately. His face reads "I'm screwed." all over it but she continues talking. She says that she realizes he isn't having an affair but he is in trouble at work. She tries to continue but he stops her. He tells her that he is in fact having an affair. She gets up and goes to leave, she is pissed. He follows her trying to apologize and explain himself but it only makes things worse so she leaves.

She shows to work clearly upset and on the brink of tears. The team notices right away and all three of them walk up to her desk. Gibbs asks her if she is okay and she tells them that Jake is having an affair. Tony and McGee are so shocked and are asking her questions and telling her how sorry they are but Gibbs just stands there looking at her. He knows what it feels like to have a spouse cheat on you. He sends her with DiNozzo to get more information about the case, trying to help distract her with work.

She is helping Abby in her lab after she and Tony get back but refuses to discuss Jake with Abby, when she asks about it. Jake shows up looking for her but she is still downstairs with Abby so he only finds a very angry DiNozzo and McGee who highly recommend he leave immediately. He doesn't take their advice and insists on talking to his wife. Gibbs walks up behind him even angrier than the other two. He insists Jake leaves and even walks him to the elevator to ensure he leaves. Gibbs is pissed; he would love to punch Jake for being such an idiot. Any friendship the two had is most definitely gone.

Bishop just focuses on work and thinks about what she is going to do while they wrap up the case. She finally made a decision so she walks up to Gibbs desk. He stops working and gives her his undivided attention. She tells him that she has made a decision and asks if they can talk. She tells him she just needs to get away for a little while and wants to go back to home Oklahoma. He tells her to do what she needs to do and she leaves to get her stuff ready for her long drive.


	5. Somewhere Between 12 and 51

Bishop had been in Oklahoma for almost two weeks now and it was almost Thanksgiving. She took her laptop so she was still able to get work done. Workwise there were no issues because of that but Gibbs missed her for sure. He knew she was processing but he just wished he could be there for her. To make matters worse Jake was calling Bishop every way he could; her cell, her work phone, her parents' house, he even made the mistake of calling Gibbs. He did not want to ever do that again, that's for sure.

Gibbs tried to focus on the case but it came to a point where he had to make sure she was okay so he found a way.

Bishop could not have been more surprised than when she saw Gibbs walking towards her as she walked out of her childhood home. She could barely believe her eyes. She asked him why he came and he explained how it was for work, which she believed to be partially true but if it was the whole reason he would have flown to Kansas instead.

She introduced him to her brother and mom and then they left for Kansas. It was a little awkward but they focused on the case. Unfortunately, the case was not going in the right direction so all they could do is head back to Oklahoma and wait.

They got back just in time for dinner. Gibbs loved her family, well at least the two that were there, and loved hearing the funny childhood stories about Bishop. She was super embarrassed which he found to be kind of adorable. Jake called Bishop on the house phone which he could tell upset her. He was really worried about her but thought it best not to push.

Gibbs was going to find a place to stay for the night but they wouldn't let him, insisting that he stay. Bishops mom went to get the guest room prepped for him but quickly returned.

"I'm sorry; I forgot we started storing boxes in there. We don't get many guests anymore. I know we have a blow up mattress in the garage, we'll find a spot for it." She started looking around but was having trouble finding a place for it.

"We can put it in my room, there is plenty of space." Bishop tells her mom. She looks over at Gibbs and says, "It's not like we've never had to share a room before, right?" with a chuckle.

"Yeah, that is true." he replies.

"You sure El?" asks her brother.

"Yes." she answers annoyed.

"Okay, I'll go set it up." he says looking back and forth between Gibbs and his little sister, trying to figure out what that had meant.

"Thank you." Gibbs says.

After everything gets situated they all go to get ready for bed. Bishop sits down on her bed, Gibbs is across the room.

"Hey, Gibbs?"

"Yeah." He begins walking toward her.

"Thank you for coming."

"Of course. I was worried about you." He sits down next to her. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm doing better than I expected to be. I've been having trouble because I didn't know what to do but now I think I know."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to get a divorce. I can't trust him anymore and I don't think anything will change that."

"Yeah, trust me, I get it."

"I do, trust you."

They just look at each other for what seems like hours and then she did something he didn't expect, she kissed him. He is completely caught off guard by it and before he can even process what is happening, she jolts away.

"I'm sorry; I don't know why I did that. I shouldn't have, I know you have Rule 12."

"No, it's actually okay, I don't mind. As for my rule there is also Rule 51 and this is definitely a circumstance where I think Rule 12 is wrong."

He slowly leans in and kisses her. Then he gets up, says goodnight, goes over to the air mattress across the room, and goes to sleep. They don't discuss it after that but their relationship has definitely changed and they both liked where it was going. He spent Thanksgiving with her and her family and was able to meet the rest of them. They drove back to D.C. a couple days later, with new hopes and a little more happiness.


	6. Facing Jake

Bishop and Gibbs returned to D.C. with a level of satisfaction that unfortunately came with some confusion. They both enjoyed the kiss but they hadn't discussed what it meant yet, if it meant anything. Therefore they both worked and pretended that nothing had happened even though they were dying to talk to each other about it.

Gibbs did discover one thing; Bishop still hadn't talked to Jake. Jake got so desperate to talk to her that he did something he never wanted to do again; he called Gibbs. Being in a different place than the last time he and Jake talked but not sure what that place was exactly, Gibbs decided to play it safe and remain as neutral as possible. He told Jake that Bishop was in fact at work when he asked but also warned her that Jake was coming. He could tell Bishop wasn't looking forward to talking to Jake and wasn't exactly happy about Jake calling him either.

Jake showed up a little while later and Bishop and Gibbs both happened to be there. Gibbs knew what Bishop was going to say to him but couldn't help being bothered by Jake being there. Bishop was uncomfortable with Jake showing up at NCIS especially while she was busy working on the case with Gibbs. It was super awkward for her especially because all that her and Gibbs had discussed since the kiss was work.

She looked at Gibbs to make sure he was okay with her stepping away; she wanted his approval first, both as her boss and as... whatever he was to her...personally. He gave her a look of approval and she knew there were no more excuses, it was time for her to talk to Jake, as much as she didn't want to she knew she needed to.

Jake apologized and tried to get her back, to get her to even consider staying with him, but Bishop had already decided what she wanted. She told him what she had to say, nothing more to it, it was time they got a divorce. They were past fixing and they both knew it.

She had some trouble focusing on work after that and Gibbs was a little worried about her. It was partially because he could see she was upset and wanted to fix it but if he was honest with himself, he could see it was because he feared she regretted her decision to end things with Jake. He wanted her to make the best decision for her but he also wanted her to choose him, and he was losing faith they were the same thing. Luckily for everyone, she suddenly felt much better and got a lot more focused. It took no time to solve the case.

Bishop got her difficult conversation with Jake over with and now she needed to have a very different conversation with Gibbs. She goes to his house and knocks on his front door. He hollers for her to come in and he doesn't seem surprised to see it's her.

"I've been really distracted since we got back from Oklahoma and we haven't really had a chance to talk."

"Bishop, we don't need to... I'm fine if you just want to forget anything ever happened."

"No, I don't want to forget about it." She goes and sits beside him on the couch. "What do you think?"

"I think I'm relieved you feel that way."

"So we're doing this?'

"I guess we are. So how are you doing? I know talking to Jake must have been hard."

"It was hard but I also feel sort of relieved that I don't really have to worry about it anymore."

"I know what you mean."

"Well, I should probably get going."

"Yeah okay..." he slowly leans in and kisses her. It was just the type of affirmation they both needed to help them believe they are really going to do this. "Bye."

"Goodbye."


	7. Beyond Cold

As a major cold front hit D.C., causing temperatures well below zero, power lines started to be effected. No power meant no heat and one by one the team's homes got extremely cold. McGee's power went out first so the following night he stayed at Tony's, unfortunately he brought his bad luck with him and Tony's apartment also lost power.

In need of a warm place to stay they forced Bishop to let them stay with her; telling Gibbs she was kind enough to offer them a place to stay until their power was back on. He of course knew this was a lie, because if they were at her place then they would notice the two of them going out on a date, or at least ask her a million questions about her date that she couldn't answer because the truth was she was going on a date with him-her boss, their boss- their first date actually.

He just looked at her, giving her a look that said: he knows that they are forcing it on her and that there is no safe way she could tell them no when they were trying to keep their relationship a secret. That it's not her fault and she shouldn't feel bad.

Even though she was able to pull all of that out of one look like he knew she could, she felt bad and he could see it in her eyes. Luckily for them DiNozzo and McGee were oblivious to this silent conversation.

They had to cancel their date and Bishop's place stopped being warm not long after they went to bed, leaving all three apartments freezing with no hope that the power would return anytime soon. They were left with a single option, to ask Gibbs if they could stay at his house.

Much to their surprise he said yes. He mostly just said yes so he could hang out with Ellie even though their date was cancelled. He also loves his team; they're a family, so he wasn't going to leave them in the cold.

They watched old movies and were all having a really good time. Gibbs gave Ellie the big couch, Tim and Tony the floor, and he took the chair. The guys just assumed Gibbs gave Bishop the best spot because she was the one girl but Bishop knew it was a subtle sign of affection, his way of taking care of her. Gibbs got up to make some more popcorn and Bishop followed him to "help" while McGee and

DiNozzo were distracted by the movie.

"Hey" she said as she entered the kitchen.

"Hey. How are you doing?" he replied without turning around.

"I'm doing good. I'm having a lot of fun actually. Although... this isn't exactly how I imagined spending the night at your house." saying the last part quietly.

He stopped working on the popcorn and walked towards her, motioning for her to move behind the wall and out of the line of sight of the two agents lying not far away. "Really, how exactly did you imagine spending the night here?" He replied flirtatiously but also quiet enough that the other two couldn't hear.

"You'll just have to take me on that date and find out." she flirted back. She looked over at Tim and Tony and said, "We should probably get back in there before they get curious.

"You're right but real quick..." he checked to make sure that they were still focused on the movie and then kissed her, gently pressing her against the wall. The kiss only lasted a few seconds then he went back to working on the popcorn and she returned to the living room, both acting like nothing had happened.


	8. Daye Night

A couple weeks later the team finished up a case on a Friday morning, giving them an entire weekend work free. Finally Gibbs and Bishop would be able to go on their first date.

Bishop pulled up to Gibbs' house after an afternoon of preparing herself, mentally and physically. He was her boss and there is something so certain about going on a date, so far their relationship felt like just a fluke or a dream but a date made it real, made them real. She was dating her boss...weird. She got out of her head and got ready. She knew he wouldn't care what she looked like, had had seen her hundreds of times at work, he had on multiple occasions seen what she looks like when she first woke up, but she still wanted to look perfect. She spent hours picking a dress, doing her hair, her make-up. She looked amazing as she walked up to that door.

She decided to knock instead of going right in even though she knew the door wasn't locked. He answered the door almost immediately. He looked incredible. He was wearing a baby blue button up that made his gorgeous eyes practically impossible to look away from.

"You look beautiful, come on in." he said looking her up and down.

"Thank you. You don't look to bad yourself." She replied with a smile as she entered his home.

"Thank you"

"So... where are we going?"

"It's a surprise."

"Now I'm even more curious."

They went to an adorable little Italian restaurant only a few miles from his house. It was nice without being fancy, just the most perfect place. They talked and laughed and had a wonderful time; if you had been sitting in that restaurant watching them you would have thought they had been together for years. I guess that's the comfort you feel around a person you trust your life with on a daily basis.

They pulled back up to his house in his truck. He got out and then went around opening her door and helping her out. They walked up to his front porch hand in hand.

"Tonight has been a lot of fun." She said thinking about their flirting just a few weeks

before.

"I'm doing good. I'm having a lot of fun actually. Although... this isn't exactly how I imagined spending the night at your house." saying the last part quietly.

He stopped working on the popcorn and walked towards her, motioning for her to move behind the wall and out of the line of sight of the two agents lying not far away. "Really, how exactly did you imagine spending the night here? He replied flirtatiously but also quiet enough that the other two couldn't hear.

"You'll just have to take me on that date and find out." she flirted back.

Did he remember? Should she stay or leave?

"Yeah, I've been enjoying myself. Would you like to come in?"

"I should probably go home. I have a busy day tomorrow." She lied hoping he would ask her again.

"Oh" Did she really have a busy day tomorrow? They just found out this morning that they had the weekend off. Was he getting ahead of himself? "I was just hoping you could show me how you imagined spending the night. If I remember correctly, you promised me something like that the other night."

Yes, he remembers! "Oh yeah, I almost forgot." She said in a way that made it very clear she didn't forget at all.

He opens the front door and lets her in first. As soon as he closed the door behind him she pulled him into a kiss. They slowly moved toward the wall, never pulling away from each other, she pushes him against it as they continue kissing.

Suddenly realizing that Gibbs' front door doesn't lock and therefore anyone can walk in at any point, she stopped kissing him and asked, "Your basement door locks right?"

"Yeah" he replied slightly confused.

"Let's go down there." She replied playfully with a smile.

He realized and replied, "Lead the way."

She grabbed his hand and they went down to the basement. Gibbs let go of her hand and locked the door behind them. She was leaning on the wall when he got to the bottom of the stairs.

"Now where were we."


	9. L

Sitting on Gibbs' couch watching a movie, Bishop rests her head on Gibbs' shoulder.

"Hey, Gibbs?"

"Yeah, El"

"It feels a little weird calling you Gibbs when it's just us like this. I mean it's what almost everyone calls you, it doesn't feel personal enough."

"I told you that you can call me Jethro, if you'd like."

"I know but that's what Ducky calls you. Is there something else, something just for me to call you? How about just J?"

"That's what my ex-wife called me."

"Which one?"

"Does it really matter?' he says with a chuckle.

"Probably not." She says laughing.

They both just sat there laughing for a moment.

"The second one."

"What?"

"My second ex-wife used to call me J."

"Oh." She replied, having an even clearer understanding of why he didn't want to be called J.

"How about you call me L?"

She laughed. "But you call me El."

"Unless we plan on talking to ourselves, it shouldn't get too confusing." He replies with a smile.

"I guess you're right."

"A few people call me Leroy but nobody calls me L, it will be reserved just for you to call me."

"I love it."

"Then I love it." He replied and then kissed her. Nothing made him as happy as seeing her happy did, in a very long time."


	10. Jealous

Bishop felt like she was getting to be really close friends with McGee. They had just spent all week bouncing name ideas of each other for a ship naming contest. What he didn't know was that after the first couple days, she had decided to use his dad's name for her entry. He was so happy when he found out.

Gibbs loved seeing McGee happy but something about his girlfriend being the one making another guy that happy really bothered him. McGee has his own girlfriend who makes him happy. His real concern was with why Bishop wanted to do something like that for McGee. He has no problem with her having friends, male and female, but she was getting a little too close to McGee for him to be comfortable.

Bishop was over at Gibbs' house later that night. They are kissing when Gibbs suddenly stops and pulls away. She looks at him confused.

"That's a really nice thing you did for McGee earlier."

"It seemed like the right thing to do." She leans back in and tries to kiss him but he leans further back.

"You don't... have feelings for him do you?"

She is taken back by his question but still quickly and firmly replies, "No, of course not." Why in the world would he even ask that?

"Okay... I was just asking since we can't tell anyone about us. You guys seem to be getting really close, I just thought... I don't know, maybe you were looking for another relationship."

Now she wasn't just shocked, but she was angry. "Wait a minute, you weren't asking if I liked him. You were asking if I was cheating on you with him! Do you really think I would do that? Especially after everything that happened with Jake."

Gibbs opened his mouth to reply but had no defense.

"Why would you even consider the thought?"

"You hang out with him at work all the time and you guys are always joking around together."

"So what? We are friends."

"YOU NAMED A SHIP AFTER HIS DAD."

"Wow. When did you become so jealous?"

"I don't know maybe it was my ex-wife marrying the man she cheated on me with or maybe it's because the last person I cared about the way I care about you was Shannon."

"I really care about you too but I'm not the type of person who would cheat on my boyfriend. I just can't even believe that you would think that I am. I'm going home. I'll see you at work... Boss."


	11. Isolation

Work was super hard for Gibbs; usually work was the one place where he didn't think about relationships. Work was his one excuse to take a break from it. This relationship was different because she was right there in front of him every day. One of the many reasons why Rule 12 existed. They had been doing a decent job of separating work and their relationship but that was nearly impossible for him right now. She wasn't talking to him outside of work, they weren't going out on dates; she wouldn't even answer his calls or texts. She was acting the same at work but it was different because that's all there was, their relationship was completely professional. He saw her almost every day yet it still felt like he was completely cut off from her, completely alone.

Bishop was still furious. She couldn't believe that he not only thought she would cheat on him but actually believed it enough to say it out loud, to question her. It was no random thought, as he went for the possible reasons for her to hang out with McGee, which quickly passed. He legitimately thought she could be dating McGee, who first of all was not her type and second of all was completely in love with and committed to Delilah, whom Bishop was also friends with.

She didn't even want to talk to him about it yet so she made sure to avoid being alone with him at all cost and to talk about work when she couldn't avoid it. She started taking the stairs so that she could never be stuck in the elevator with him. There was no doubt in her mind that if that happened he would stop the elevator and force her to talk. She did however find the irony of Gibbs being the one who wanted to talk a little amusing.

Gibbs seemed to be the only one in the office who cared about Bishop's sudden decision to never take the elevator, not that he showed it. Everyone just assumed she wanted to get extra steps in or something, they didn't even ask. Gibbs knew why she was actually doing it though so therefore he cared. He was the reason. She wanted to avoid him so badly that she was willing to walk up and down several flights of stairs throughout the day; she was definitely still upset with him.

Bishop and McGee were still as close as ever, if not more so. She seemed to be going out of her way to spend time with him; she was helping him look for an apartment, they were standing abnormally close to each other when Gibbs wasn't in the room and then quickly moving apart the moment they saw him coming, she even walked up the stairs one time to join McGee in his descent to where she was to begin with just so she could talk to him longer. It was driving Gibbs crazy and he really wanted to know if she was doing it on purpose; trying to push his buttons, make him more jealous, or even just say that she does what she wants and he needed to get over his jealousy. He was still a little concerned that she did actually like McGee even though she denied it.

He did nothing about it though, until one day he couldn't take it anymore. Nothing unusual even happened that day, the last straw was them carpooling from the office to the crime scene of all things. He knew he couldn't do anything that anyone besides Bishop would find strange and unnecessary, so he stopped letting them team up. He didn't say anything like that; he just partnered Bishop with DiNozzo or himself every time. He would send McGee to do one task and Bishop to do another.

She knew exactly what he was doing, but knew she couldn't call him out on it without either drawing attention to their relationship or having a private conversation with him about their relationship, and she really didn't want to do either of those things; so she left it alone. She also kind of found his jealousy a little adorable because she knew it was because he cared; but that still didn't mean she had forgiven him yet.

Gibbs hated that he was jealous but he loved her and didn't want to share her with other guys, even if they were just really good friends. She was hard not to love and he didn't want to risk anyone else figuring that out; because how could he compete with guys like McGee? Or at least that was what he had been thinking up until this moment in which he decided he trusted her and all that mattered to him anymore is that he didn't want to lose her.


	12. Time To Talk Part 1

The team was in the middle of a case that was particularly exhausting. It wasn't even six when Gibbs decided to send everyone home. They were all worn out and needed to rest so they could start fresh the next morning.

Bishop was relaxing on her couch, reading a book, until there was a knock on her door. She opened it to find Gibbs.

Trying not to act annoyed and hoping he was there for professional not personal reasons she said, "Hey Boss. Do you need something?"

All he said when he softly replied was "El".

"Gibbs, what do you want?" she asked allowing her annoyance to show this time.

"I want you. I just want you."

She just looked at him. She didn't even know what to say. She missed him and wanted to give him another chance but she was also still angry and hurt.

"Please just give me five minutes and hear me out. If you don't like what I have to say, I'll leave and go back to being your boss and nothing more."

"Fine." She replied opening the door the rest of the way. "Come in."

Once he was inside and she had closed the door she asked, "Okay, what do you want to tell me?"

He stepped forward so that he was just a few feet away from her before he began to speak.

"I'm sorry. I was way out of line and shouldn't have said any of those stupid things I said. I trust you completely, please forgive me."

"If you trust me so much than why would you accuse me of cheating on you?"

"Because I love you!"

Bishop's face, which had shown only anger and annoyance only seconds ago, was now soft and surprised, but she remained silent.

"I love you El and I know that there are a lot of men- men with more to offer you- that can't help falling for you too."

Stepping closer and closer to him as she spoke, Bishop said, "Gibbs... I love you too. I don't want what anyone else has to offer; I love YOU and I want YOU."

They were only inches away from each other now; Gibbs slowly closed the gap, pulling her in and pressing his lips to hers. After a few moments they broke away from each other.

"I've missed you, L."

"Not nearly as much as I've missed you... but I should probably go home since we are in the middle of a cased and the whole reason I sent us home from work was to get some rest. But we'll talk after the case is closed?"

"We will definitely talk then."


	13. Time To Talk Part 2

It took the team a few more days but they wrapped up the case in time to enjoy their Saturday evening and entire Sunday before returning to work on Monday.

About an hour after Gibbs got home; there was a knock on his door. Having a pretty good idea of who it was, he answered the door, instead of just calling for whomever it was to come in, like he would usually do.

"Hey El" he said, motioning for her to come in.

"Hey" she replied before kissing him in greeting.

He closed the door than deepened the kiss pushing her slightly against the wall. She pulled away after a minute and went and sat on the couch.

"Are you okay, El?"

"Yeah, just sitting so we can talk." slightly confused as to why he asked.

"Oh, when we said we would talk, you actually meant we would talk. I just thought it was a 'See you then' type of thing." He replied in realization.

"Well yeah, I think we need to talk about a few things."

He walked over and sat down beside her. "Okay, like what?"

"Well I feel like we need to discuss where this relationship is going long term. It seems to me like we are at a point where things are beginning to get serious. I mean, we just had the jealousy fight and said I love you to one another for the first time."

"I would agree that things are getting serious and I do love you. I honestly don't know where this relationship is going but I am excited to find out."

"I want to just trust that the issues will work themselves out but I also can't help but wonder about some things."

"Okay, then let's talk through them."

"Well you've been divorced three times and I've only been divorced once. I'm in a place where I think that eventually I will want to be married again, are you?"

"Wow, I don't know if I will want to be married again but I do know it is possible. I wasn't thinking I would get married again after Shannon died or after my first two divorces but I did each time so I wouldn't count the option out, just yet."

"That does help but what about keeping our relationship a secret. It's been the best option so far to keep our relationship a secret do to our work situation but we can't do that forever. It's hard not telling my family and friends about us."

"Bishop, I know that I have Rule #12, which makes me seem like the last person to want anyone to know I'm dating someone I work with but like I told you the first time you kissed me, this is different, we are different. I don't feel like that rule applies here so if you are in a place where you want to tell people right now than we can. If you aren't than whenever you are ready, we can tell whomever you want to tell...Together."

"Thank you. I feel a lot better about everything now. I'm not sure I'm quite ready to tell people about us but I'll tell you when I am."

"Good." He replied pulling her into his arms and kissing her passionately. "Now we can do what I was planning for us to do this evening."


	14. Grumpy Gibbs

McGee and DiNozzo were loving their favorite blond probie more and more by the day. Whenever Gibbs seemed to be particularly grumpy while working on a case-which was luckily for everyone happening less and less recently-they would do their best to work with him one on one but Bishop had begun practically volunteering so that they wouldn't even have to try to get out of it. They figured she had caught on to the fact they would find a way to make her do it most of the time anyway and just embraced the task but she had actually caught on to something entirely different. Gibbs was a lot less hard on her then he was on the other two in these situations, on a rare occasion he'd even discuss what was causing his particularly bad mood.

She got a little worried that they might be catching on when they thanked her, after a particular case where Gibbs was more... motivated than usual, but then Tony made a comment about her accepting the probie responsibilities much faster than McGee had and she knew that she was at least mostly in the clear.

She had been working with Gibbs on cases like that for weeks before he noticed.

"Why is it that on several cases the past few weeks you have been the only one available to run down leads with me?" he said as they drove to talk to a victims CO on another one of these type of cases.

"Umm...well."

"Well what Bishop?" he asked only slightly annoyed instead of angry.

"You can get a bit... irritable while we are working on cases sometimes. The guys sorta avoid working alone with you when that happens."

"They do? More than normal? Interesting. Why don't you?"

"Well, I sort of noticed that you get less irritable when it's just the two of us and I enjoy working with you so I guess I just don't really mind and I know they do so I take one for the team.'" She replied chuckling at the end.

"You're saying that you feel better equipped to deal with me then they are because you are my girlfriend?'

"Yeah, kind of I guess."

"Okay." He replied with a shrug, "Let me know if you get tired of "taking one for the team" and I'll remind them that I always catch on to their tricks eventually."

"I don't foresee that happening but I'll be sure to let you know if it does."

They both laughed then he grabbed her hand and held it for the rest of their drive.


	15. Open, Shut, Then Open Again

On a case that seemed very open and shut-there was a witness, the evidence all seemed to line up; the suspect even confessed, claiming self-defense, all that was left was for Abby to examine the victims car which had yet to be towed from the scene and for Ducky to perform the autopsy. With nothing left to do until the tow truck arrived at the scene, Gibbs sent everyone home.

Bishop had stayed to finish up some paperwork and was still at the office when Ducky finished the autopsy. She got his finding and started to become suspicious of the story they had been told, the body had been moved and the victim was dead for over an hour before anyone called the police.

Gibbs was at home looking at crime scene photos and was starting to become suspicious of how things had happened as well.

Bishop knew Gibbs would be at home working on his boat so she went over to talk to him about the case.

He heard her coming down the stairs and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I came to talk about the case."

"I told you we would pick it back up in the morning."

"You do realize that you are surrounded by crime scene photos, right?"

He just responded with a look that said, "Okay, whats up?"

She told him what Ducky had found and he told her what he had found than they decided to go to Gibbs favorite diner to get some food while they discussed the case further.

While eating they talked, mostly about the case, and discovered that the witness had been in Juvy for eight months. This was just enough new information to push them to take another look at the crime scene.

McGee and Delilah were there when they showed up. It was almost like a crime scene double date until DiNozzo and Abby showed up. But for those few minutes, Bishop was thinking maybe, just maybe, it wouldnt be so bad if the team found out about her and Gibbs. Maybe things would turn out okay.

They pieced together the real story and solved the case by morning. Then everyone finally was able to go home and actually get some rest.


	16. Thunderstorm romance

It started raining shortly before the team left on Friday evening for the weekend. Gibbs left first, followed shortly by Bishop. McGee left twenty minutes after that but Tony stayed to finish up paperwork. McGee was almost home when Tony called and told him that he was just about to leave but then a case came in. McGee turned around and headed back to the office and Tony called Bishop than Gibbs in attempt to tell them that a case had come in but failed to reach either of them.

When McGee arrived at the office, Tony told him and they both tried one more time.

"When did you call Bishop the first time?" McGee asked.

"I called her immediately after you hung up, why?" Tony replied.

"I drove right past her street on the way back to the office and was on the phone with Delilah cancelling our plans, so Bishop should have had reception. She did say that she was going to be home all night, didn't she?"

"Yeah, she did."

"That's weird; I don't know why she would lie."

"Maybe there is some reason we can't think of at the moment for why we couldn't get ahold of her. Regardless, we can't contact either of them right now," Tony looked out the window at the now intense storm, "and it doesn't look safe to drive out there anyway. We will just have to wait a few hours for the storm to calm down then try again."

...Meanwhile...

Gibbs and Bishop were snuggling on his couch watching a movie, completely oblivious to the fact they had lost cell reception.

"The storm is getting pretty intense out there." Bishop said right before a loud boom of thunder made her jump slightly.

Gibbs chuckled. "Don't worry, I'll protect you." Pulling her closer to him but so that he could still face her.

Bishop rolled her eyes. "I actually really like it, something about it being cold out there but warm in here." she said looking from the window, to the fire in the fireplace, then back to her boyfriend. He kissed her softly and then they went back to watching their movie.

... A few hours later...

Bishop's phone began to ring; she looked to see who it was and then answered it, mouthing "McGee" to Gibbs. Gibbs was curious what he would be calling her about but then he got a call from DiNozzo and figured he was about to find out.

Tony and McGee told them about how a case came in just before Tony was going to leave and how they tried to get ahold of them but couldn't reach either of them. DiNozzo avoided telling Gibbs that Bishop was out of reach just in case he would get mad, even though he was out of reach, but Gibbs noticed Tony's tactics and asked him if Bishop was there. Gibbs enjoyed Tony's scramble to cover up for Bishop before telling Gibbs the truth he already knew.

Gibbs and Bishop got off the phone at almost the exact same time and didn't even say anything to each other. They just gave each other a look of "Here we go again." got in their own cars, and drove to the office.

When they were both off the phone McGee turned to DiNozzo and asked, "So you were able to reach him?"

"Yeah, and you got ahold of her?"

"Yeah, I did."

"That's lucky timing."

"Yeah, right, lucky." he replied but he couldn't help but think, "Did he hear someone else's phone ringing in the background?"

"It's so weird that we couldn't reach you." McGee said to Bishop when she arrived, "I was right by your apartment and my phone was working."

"I guess my apartment is in just the right place for the storm to have affected my reception." She replied with a "what can you do?" look.

"Yeah I guess so." He said with a shrug, not entirely believing she was home.


	17. Batting Cages

Gibbs and Bishop decided to go to the batting cages together.

He went first and hit almost all of the balls, and then he stepped out of the cage so that she could go. "How long has it been since you've come here?" He asked her.

"I haven't really done it since I started working at NCIS."

"You haven't been back at all since I offered you the job, here?"

"Oh yeah, you're right. This was where you offered me the job. I forgot about that. No I haven't been back, that was the last time. I'm probably going to be a little rusty at first."

"I didn't realize your boss keeps you so busy, I'll have to talk to him about that." He joked and they both laughed. "I would have suggested we do this sooner if I knew. Would you like me to help you remember how to do this?"

"You mean come up behind me and tell me how far apart my feet need to be and how much to bend my knees then wrap your arms around me so that your hands are over mine showing me exactly how to swing like you would see in a cheesy romance movie?"

"No." He chuckled, "Okay, maybe."

"I'm sorry, did I just ruin your move. How about this? I try it on my own and if I'm really bad then I'll let you "help me" as much as you want."

He rolled his eyes. "Fine."

She went into the cage and he shut the gate behind her watching her. She started the machine at a normal speed and went up to the plate. She swung and missed the first ball.

He said "You're trying too hard." and he tried to hide a chuckle but she noticed anyway and gave him a dirty look which made her miss when the second one came. The third ball came and she hit it perfectly, and the fourth, and the fifth, and so on. She finished and stepped out of the cage.

"Rusty, you said?"

She just lifted up her hand making the "a little" sign with her fingers.

He chuckled and put his arm around her shoulder. He gave her a kiss and then they left.


	18. Set It Up

Bishop was the last one to come into the big orange room and when she did she was on the phone and clearly very annoyed.

"Mom, I said no. I'm not interested." She said into the phone then stood by her desk with a look on her face that said she was waiting for her mom to take a breath so that she could actually get a word in again.

After a few minutes more, she said, "Okay, Mom, I'm at work. I'll talk to you about this later, okay?" ... "Okay, love you, bye." and then hung up the phone.

McGee and DiNozzo gave her a weird look then walked up to her desk.

"What was that about?" McGee asked.

"Apparently, the son of one of my mom's friends just moved to D.C. and so, of course, my mom is trying to set us up."

"And I'm guessing you're not interested."

"Definitely not interested."

"Have you dated at all since Jake?" McGee asked.

"If only you knew." She thought but replied with a simple, "No."

"It's been a while. Why not go out with this guy?" McGee said.

"It's one date, just a few hours to appease your mother." DiNozzo offered.

Luckily for Bishop, they got a case before she had to reply but she was uncomfortably aware that Gibbs had been at his desk listening to the whole conversation and hadn't said a word. She made it through the whole case without having to discuss the subject again and as soon as the case was solved and they all left the office for the day, she went to Gibbs' house.

"Hey, El" he said from the couch as she walked in.

"Hey" she replied, sitting down beside him, "Just so you know, I am going to get out of this blind date thing."

"I was thinking maybe you should do it."

"What?"

"I know how hard it has been for you, not being able to tell your family that you are in a relationship. And I'm sure your mom is concerned, as far as she knows you haven't dated at all since Jake. So like DiNozzo said earlier, it's one date and it appeases your mom. That way she doesn't worry and you don't have to stress about what she is thinking. You go on one date with this guy so that you can tell your mom you did and then after the date you can just come over and hang out with your actual boyfriend." he said pointing his thumbs back at himself at the end.

"That plan does make sense but it's kind of weird for me to go on a date with another guy and I don't want to date anyone other than you."

"I know, but it's not a real date so if you're okay with it I promise I am too. I don't like the idea of your mom worrying either. It's the best plan for everyone."

"Okay, then I guess I'll go call my mom and tell her yes." She gave him a quick kiss and walked away to call her mom.


	19. Tony DiNozzo Leaves

From what the team had told her, which wasn't much, she could see that Ziva had been important to them; she just didn't know how important until Ziva died. Now she finally understood what Ziva meant to everyone, or at least she thought she did. She could see that DiNozzo was close to Ziva in a way nobody else was but she didn't expect it to be like this. They had a child; they had a child that DiNozzo was willing to leave everything, to leave NCIS, for.

She supported Tony's decision in every way, he has to put his daughter first, but she was sad to see him go.

When DiNozzo gave her a hug goodbye, he whispered in her ear, "Be careful, McGee is starting to get suspicious." He pulled away, and her eyes asked the question he knew they would, "How do you know?" But he didn't reply, just winked at her and walked away.

After saying goodbye to everyone at the office, DiNozzo went to Gibbs' house to say goodbye. He went down to Gibbs' basement where Gibbs was working on his boat and said goodbye to the man he had called Boss for a long time. As he walked up the basement steps to leave he said, "Hey Gibbs, take good care of her."

Gibbs looked at him surprised, not that he knew but that he had said it in that moment. "How long have you known?"

"Since what I would assume was the beginning, since you got back from Oklahoma."

Gibbs just looked at him with pride as Tony reached the top of the steps and left.

Bishop waited a few hours before going over to Gibbs' house so that Gibbs and DiNozzo had plenty of time to say goodbye. Gibbs was sitting on his couch when she walked in.

"Hey, El." He said as she sat down beside him.

"Hey. Did DiNozzo come to say goodbye?"

"Yeah, he did. I actually wanted to talk to you about that, he said something."

"Oh, you too?"

"He said something to you?"

"Yeah but continue with what you were saying, what did he say to you?"

"Oh, he just told me to take care of you. What did he say to you?"

"Oh okay. He told me that we should be careful because McGee is starting to catch on."

Gibbs just slowly nodded then said, "Okay, then we will just have to be more cautious, it will be okay."

"Yeah, we'll just be more discreet." She replied with a confident voice yet her eyes displayed anything but confidence, not that he noticed.


	20. The Beauty of Nature

Gibbs and Bishop decided to go on a hike in the woods by Gibbs' cabin, away from everyone else. They wanted to be able to enjoy each other and not have to worry that they will be seen. Also, there was somehow still cell reception in those woods, so they didn't have to worry about another storm situation either. It was a worry-free date that they could both enjoy.

Gibbs picked her up, and they drove to his cabin.

"I'm really excited we are doing this, it has been a while since I've hiked," Bishop said as they started walking.

"Yeah, I haven't come up here in a while," Gibbs replied.

"Then it sounds perfect that we are doing this." She said giving him a quick kiss.

"Sometime we should stay in the cabin for a weekend."

"Yeah, maybe after we've shaken McGee off of our tail, it seems too risky to spend multiple days up here, you know how much McGee lives pinging people's phones." She said chuckling.

He chuckled back, "Yeah it may be hard to come up with a good excuse for the two of us to be at my cabin together."

"When he is less suspicious we can say we bumped into each other. You were at your cabin, and I was hiking on a trail that you told me about." She said motioning at the trail they were on, " We just happened to both be in these woods at the same time."

"Yeah I don't think he will believe that, but as long as he has no proof, he will let it go."

They continued hiking and talking about everything they could think of, it was fun and easy, they were completely content. They stopped at an opening when the sun began to set and made a little fire. Gibbs cooked them some steaks over the fire, and Bishop just enjoyed watching the nature, and Gibbs cooking. They cuddled up together as they ate.

It got dark, and they looked at the stars.

"No matter what problems I may be facing, they always feel insignificant when I'm in nature. Look at these stars, I can't worry about anything while I look at this incredible, starry night." Bishop stated.

Gibbs did not reply, he just sat there watching her marvel at the stars. After a few minutes, he said, "Beautiful."

"They are aren't they," Bishop replied without taking her eyes off the night sky.

"I wasn't talking about the stars."

She chuckled and turned to look at him, "You do love to be cheesily romantic, don't you?"

"Yes, I do, and I'm not ashamed of it."

She chuckled once more then kissed him.

They sat a little while longer until the fire burned out then took their flashlights out of their backpacks and headed back towards the car.


	21. Fake Date

The time came for Bishop to go on the blind date she agreed to let her mom set up for her. They went to dinner, it was only a couple hours, but it felt like an eternity to her. He was a nice guy, but she just wanted it to be over so she could go see Gibbs, she couldn't help feeling guilty going on a date with someone else. The date finally ended, and she drove straight to Gibbs' house from the restaurant. She went down to the basement where he was working on his boat. He saw her coming down the stairs and walked towards the bottom of them to meet her.

"You look nice, hot date?" he joked.

"That's not funny." She replied before kissing him.

"Okay, jokes aside, how did it go?"

"It's not the worst date I've ever been on, but I much rather have been here with you."

He could tell she felt guilty for going, "You're here now, that's all that matters, and I encouraged you to go remember. Stop feeling guilty."

"I can't help it."

"El, it was my idea that you go and it was just a means to an end. You did it so now it's over with, you don't have to worry about it anymore your family doesn't have to worry about your love life for at least a little while. It was a good thing I promise."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"So, other than you feeling guilty, did it go okay?"

"Yeah, it was decent. Although, he was a cat person." She joked.

"Oh, so he never had a chance."

"Pretty much."

He looked at her lovingly and would have moved in to kiss her if McGee hadn't shown up at the top of the steps.

"Hey Boss," he said before noticing Bishop. "Oh, hey Bishop. What are you doing here? I thought you had your blind date tonight."

"I did." She replied. "That's actually why I'm here. I was talking to Gibbs about it." She motioned to Gibbs with her head taking a step away from him. "We just finished talking actually. I'll leave so you guys can discuss whatever you came here to talk to him about."

"No, it's okay. I just wanted to give him these files." McGee began walking down the stairs and turned to talk to Gibbs. "A few more probies for you to check out, 10 files were sent over, but these three are the only ones that looked like they even had a chance of working out." McGee handed him the files and headed back up the stairs. "See you guys Monday." He said with a wave and left.

"Bye." Bishop and Gibbs replied in unison.

"Well, that wasn't good," Bishop said once she was sure McGee was gone.

"What do you mean?"

"If he wasn't already suspicious, then he would definitely be now, but since he was already suspicious, I can only imagine what he's thinking now."

"I see... I'm sure it will all be okay. We will just have to be more careful." He said using his most calming voice.

She tried her best not to let her fear and frustration control her. Her voice only rose slightly when she said, "That's what we've been doing, and look where it got us. Apparently, being careful isn't enough."

"So what do you suggest?'

She shrugged and somewhat solemnly answered, "I think there is only one thing we can do."

"You don't mean?"

"I think we need to end this here and now before we get caught."

"I don't want to do that, I don't want to go back to a relationship that is solely professional, but if this is what you want then okay. I'll do whatever I have to do to keep a good relationship with you, even if that means our relationship is only professional. I will hate it, but I can do it as long as we can at least have what we had before this." He motioned back and forth between them.

"I don't want to do that either, but I think we need to. I believe we can do it, go back to what we had before. We matter too much to each other to be anything less than that, to have a smaller role than that in each other's lives."

"Okay. I guess it's decided then."

"Yeah, I guess it is."

She started her way up the stairs.

"Hey, El." He called out.

"Yeah?" she replied stopping and turning to look at him.

"I love you."

"I love you, too." And with that, she left.


	22. Aftermath

It had been several weeks since Gibbs and Bishop had broken up and they were managing to act like nothing had ever happened, for the most part, even though it was killing them on the inside. They both hated it, but they knew it was necessary. Bishop just wasn't ready for anybody to know she was dating her boss, especially McGee or her family; they just wouldn't understand. DiNozzo knowing was different, and not only because she didn't find out he knew until he was leaving, but he's also the type of person who could understand where she is coming from. DiNozzo had experienced what its like to fall for someone you won't exactly be encouraged to be with, to fall for a coworker, it just happens, regardless of rules or logic. Gibbs understood her position and where she was coming from, he respected her decision no matter how much pain it caused him.

They stayed completely professional, or at least they made a good attempt at being professional, which basically means that they were professional enough that nobody else seemed to notice. They would catch the other staring at them or "accidentally" bump into each other just to get that second of physical contact. Basically, they did everything they could that allowed them to be as close to one another without anyone else noticing anything out of the ordinary. They desired to maximize their limited relationship as much as possible without actually changing their relationship or saying they wished their relationship was different.

McGee was acting a bit weird around them but not enough for Torres and Quinn to pick up on anything. He would look at them weird whenever they would stand close to one another, which was justified since they kept standing closer together than they probably should have been. Whenever he would look at them like that, they would subtly distance themselves from one another, but they always ended up too close once again.

Torres noticed that Bishop and Gibbs seemed to always be capable of finishing each other's sentences but didn't find it weird since Bishop and McGee always knew precisely what Gibbs wanted from them without him actually saying anything; he would just look at them, and they'd run off chasing down a lead. He figured the team was a well-oiled machine, and eventually, he would be able to do all of that too, and he was 95% correct; the team was like that, but he was missing part of the picture, just like everyone else except Gibbs and Bishop were.

Bishop and Gibbs were succeeding at ending their romantic connection in every way except the most important one, in their hearts. They, however, were still not convincing enough for McGee to be sure whether or not they were a couple. He was curious, but in the end, he didn't care either way as long as they are happy; he felt very close with both of them and therefore wished the best for them and wanted to be included in their lives. He just wanted to know. If only they understood that is where he stood instead of hurting themselves and each other in fear of his reaction.


	23. A Shot at Redemption

It had been a couple of months since the breakup now and the team working on a case where a petty officer got shot in the back and found hard evidence proving that a drug dealer that the petty officer was involved with did it. The whole team went to his house to arrest him. When they got there, Gibbs has Bishop and Torres go around the back to come in the back door while Quinn, McGee, and himself go in the front. They burst through the doors at the same time, yelling, "NCIS."

The murderer was in a front room and pulls his gun as he hears them come in. Gibbs, Quinn, and McGee get to him first, and he points the gun at McGee.

"Put your gun down," McGee commands, but he does not move.

Bishop and Torres come into the suspect's side.

"Drop your gun!" Bishop shouts.

He turns to her and yells, "How about you put yours down," as he opens fire. Everyone shoots back, and he is quickly dead on the ground but not before one of his shots grazes Bishop's left arm.

It takes her a few seconds to register what happened but as soon as the killer is on the ground Gibbs is in front of her seeing if she is okay. He helps her lower herself to the ground, putting pressure on her wound then searching to make sure she wasn't hit anywhere else.

"McGee, call an ambulance," Gibbs calls out still focused on making sure Bishop is doing alright.

When the paramedics arrive, he rides in the ambulance to the hospital with her, but once they get there, he is told he has to wait in the waiting room with everyone else.

The rest of the team arrives and waits as well. Everyone was there: Ducky, Palmer, Abby, Quinn, Torres, Director Vance, and McGee. Even Delilah showed up. Apparently, McGee had called her on the way to the hospital; he knew she would want to be there. After about an hour a nurse came out and said she was fine, just resting, and they could see her in small groups. Delilah, McGee, and Abby went first then after a little bit McGee and Delilah left. Abby was still in the room, so just Ducky and Palmer went in next. Torres and Quinn offer for Gibbs to go next but he tells them to go ahead, so they went in when the other three left. Gibbs and Vance were the last ones, to go in and see her.

Vance spoke first when they walked into the room, "How are you feeling Miss Bishop?"

"Pretty well, just a little sore. It was just a graze." Bishop responds, acting like its no big deal.

"You don't need to downplay it, Ellie. You were shot, that's a big deal," Gibbs joins into the conversation.

"I don't remember you saying it was was a big deal when you got shot."

"That was different."

"Yeah, you almost died, I'm going to be fine," Bishop replies jokingly.

"I was fine too."

Vance interjects, " Okay, Okay, you guys can fight about who is more fine later but right now you need to rest. I'll see you later, Bishop."

"I'm going to stick around for a little bit longer," Gibbs tells Vance, and Vance leaves.

Gibbs grabs a chair from across the room and moves it up against the side of her bed.

"How are you feeling? Really, no playing tough."

"I'm not playing tough, I swear. I'm just a bit sore."

Gibbs looks at her for a little while, like he's trying to read her mind, then says, "Okay, but if you start to be in any pain tell a nurse. There is no shame in taking strong pain medication for at least the first few days."

"Okay, okay, I will, I promise."

They just stare at each other for several minutes and then she asks, "Okay Gibbs, what are you doing here?"

"I'm just visiting you to see how you are. That's what people do when you are in the hospital."

"I know that, but everyone else has already come and gone. Why are you sticking around?"

"Oh, I can see I'm not wanted. I'll leave," he replies with fake hurt in his voice.

"That's not what I meant. I just mean, I know we have history, and I wanted to know if that is why you are sticking around."

"I'm here as your boss and friend, that's all I promise."

"Okay, I just had to ask."

"I know... but since you brought up our history, it as good a time as any for me to bring this up."

She looks at him quizzically.

"Can I call your family and let them know about this?" She opens her mouth to reply, but he continues before she can, "I know you and therefore know you were about to say no because you don't want to worry them, but I feel like you should at least consider letting me call them. They deserve to know."

"I will think about it, but until then, please don't call them. I might wait and call them myself after I get out of the hospital."

"Can I at least call your mom? I will tell her that you aren't ready to tell everyone else, that you don't want to worry them until you have healed more. And I will tell her not to come out."

"Why is this so important to you?"

"I can just understand the place your family is in and know they would want to know. I'm the only person on the team who has met them, and I know that you are too stubborn to call them yourself for at least a few more days. Plus I sort of promised your mom I'd keep you safe."

"Fine, you can call her but only her. And you have to promise me that you will tell her its just a graze and I'm fine. And tell her not to tell anyone, worry too much, or come out to see me."

"Deal."

She looks at him endearingly then says, "Gibbs, go home, get some sleep. We both need to rest; it has been a long day. I'm fine I promise. Go home, call my mom, and then stop worrying about me and live your life. I'll call in a few days to tell everyone how I'm doing."

After some back and forth between them, he leaves but decides halfway out that she shouldn't be alone on her first night in the hospital after being shot. He calls her mom and talks to her for a while to ensure her that Bishop is fine and that she doesn't need to come out to D.C. After that, he starts walking to the food court to grab some coffee before heading back to Bishop's room.

On the way, he catches a glimpse of Bishop's room and what he sees makes him decide to leave. She wasn't asleep like he expected her to be but exactly how he had left her, with one exception, someone else was in the chair he had been sitting in, and he looked familiar.


	24. Back To Work

The hospital released her after a few days and then she was home for a week before coming back to work. She called a few times to tell the team she was still doing fine and not to come visit or send stuff, she didn't want anyone going out of their way for her, and surprisingly they listened.

That Monday, when she came back, was the first time anyone had seen her since the hospital, and they were all obsessing over her for like half an hour.

Once the mob went back to doing their jobs, Vance called her and Gibbs into his office. All that happened was Vance and Gibbs repeatedly telling her to take it easy and stay at NCIS, no field work what so ever until she was completely healed.

Those next couple weeks stuck at a desk were incredibly dull, but she finally got the all-clear from her doctor nearly a month after she was shot.

Things were weird when she went back to doing regular field work, but she assumed it was just her and the team adjusting to her being back. That is until it had been 2 weeks and something still felt off. There was nothing noticeably different, everyone seemed to be acting the way they always had, but something still felt off.

Gibbs was super worried about her when she got out of the hospital, he almost went over on several occasions to check on her but kept reminding himself that they are broken up and she told everyone not to come over. If just one other person on the team visited her, he wouldn't feel weird about it, but everyone was respecting Bishop's wishes. You would think that this would be one of the scenarios where at least Abby wouldn't listen, but no, everyone was leaving her alone. There was also that mystery guy he saw at the hospital, maybe he was taking care of her, then it would definitely be weird for Gibbs to show up at her apartment. That guy looked so familiar, why couldn't Gibbs pinpoint who it was; he hadn't seen his face only his profile so that may be it, but still it was driving him crazy.

Luckily, she came back to work very quickly, if she had been out much longer Gibbs probably would have gone to see her.

It was weird for him when she came back. Before she was shot, they were close friends with lingering feelings, but now Gibbs had realized just how important she was to him. He was so worried when she got shot, but she, on the other hand, might be moving on. He didn't want to jump to conclusions, but he also didn't want to be in denial. He wasn't upset about it all, he was happy for her if that is what it was, she deserves to be happy, and she has more than the right to move on and date someone else. It just changed things, they weren't in the same place anymore, and Gibbs wasn't sure what to do. So he decided he was just going to back off a little, give her some space and let her do whatever she is going to do without making it harder on her.

In the middle of a case, a week later, Bishop finally figured out what was different, Gibbs was different. He hadn't changed anything drastically, which is why it took her so long to figure it out, he was just different with how he was acting with her. He wasn't being mean or yelling at her more or anything like that; he just looked at her with less love in his eyes than he used to. She didn't catch him looking at her like she used to, he wouldn't brush up against her "accidentally," he stopped doing all of the little things that told her he still cared for her after they broke up. She realized it made sense, he was bound to move on, eventually. She was just surprised that eventually was now.

Bishop wished she could ask him about it, but she knew she couldn't exactly walk up to him and say, "Hey, why don't you stare at me anymore?" so she just excepted it and moved on. She decided to stop doing all those things too and considered maybe it was time she started dating again. I mean it had been a few months since they had split it off and clearly he wasn't going to try to get back together with her. Maybe it was time she got a new boyfriend, or more accuratel try out being more than friends with a close friend who she knew liked her, and if she was being honest with herself she liked him too.


	25. Mystery Boyfriend

Bishop had been in a relationship for a few weeks now and was really enjoying it. Her boyfriend was super nice, and they had been friends before they started dating, which made it an easier transition for Bishop than the other dates she had gone on since she and Gibbs broke up. She came home from a date one Friday night and found her three brothers in her apartment. It didn't take them long to figure out she had been on a date because she was dressed up and getting home late. They immediately started asking her a bunch of questions, the main one being, "Who is it?" She didn't tell them who it was but did accidentally let slip that he works at NCIS. Luckily, before they could ask her any more questions, she was rescued by a call from Gibbs with a case.

The team worked through the night, and bishop came home in the morning to shower and get fresh clothes. When she got to her apartment, her brothers were gone. She assumed they had gone out to breakfast or something, and they would call her later, so she got ready and headed back to work.

When she arrived back in the Big Orange Room, she found her brothers sitting at her desk, asking McGee all sorts of questions. They had been given guest passes.

"Who gave you access?" Bishop asks her brothers.

'I did." Gibbs says, suddenly appearing behind her.

"You forgot you aren't the only person we know here, didn't you sis?"

"I will never forget, after having to sit through hours of you guys telling him embarrassing stories about me." Bishop joked, looking at Gibbs who smiled at her.

"Embarrassing stories? How do I get in on the embarrassing stories?" Quinn joked, suddenly making her presence at her desk known, and everyone laughed.

Bishop's brothers decided to target Torres next, proding him with even more questions than they had asked McGee. He was struggling to convince them that Ellick isn't and will never be a thing until he pointed them in the direction of Reeves.

McGee and Abby were beginning to also have an interest in who Bishop might be dating and why she didn't tell them she was in a relationship.

Gibbs was getting increasingly curious about Bishop and the mystery man from the hospital. If that is who she is seeing, then that means he works at NCIS which would explain why he looked familiar. He couldn't care less that she was dating someone who works at NCIS as long as they weren't a member of his team as well, and Bishop would never date someone on the team, she knows how much that would hurt him.

As the case continued, Bishop had to translate hours of footage of conversations in Pashto and so she looped in a translator, someone for Bishop and Gibbs' past. His name is Qasim Nassir, and they helped him out of a difficult situation and got him a job at NCIS a couple of years back.

Bishop and Qasim got set up in the conference room with the footage. Gibbs came in to bring them some snacks and say hello to Qasim.

"Agent Gibbs good to see you," Qasim said, greeting Gibbs as he came into the conference room.

"Qasim, how's it going?"

"Everything is going very well for me, thanks to both of you," Qasim answered, looking from Gibbs to Bishop then back to Gibbs.

"Well, you did the hard work. Did Bishop bring you up to speed?"

"Yes, we have several hours of conversation in Pashto to translate, is that correct?"

"That's right; I'll leave you two to it," Gibbs replied and then left.

Meanwhile, Bishop's brothers were finally able to corner Reeves and question him. Reeves denied that he and Bishop are anything more than friends, of course, and was able to escape them before they could ask him any more questions.

Bishop had to go to Guantanamo Bay as part of the case, leaving her brothers unsupervised as they continued their manhunt.

Abby decided to do a statistical analysis comparing Bishop's compatibility with each male member of the team . Reeves go a decent 65% compatibility, making him look like a likely option. Torres got a low 17% making him an unlikely match. Abby surprised everyone by also analyzing Gibbs' compatibility with Bishop; she surprised them even further by presenting that he received an 87% compatibility. Faced with the analysis, Quinn could see it. McGee, however, had already considered this pairing and convinced himself it wasn't possible, so he told Abby there was no way that Bishop's mystery boyfriend was Gibbs.

Bishop finished everything she needed to do at Gitmo and returned home. She entered NCIS assuming nobody would still be there because it was late and the case had been solved; she was planning on just getting her paperwork done and leaving. However, as she walked to her desk, she saw Gibbs was still at his.

"Oh, Gibbs, you're here." She said in surprise as she set her stuff down at her desk.

"I work here too," he replied.

She chuckled slightly, "Yeah ... actually, there is something I need to tell you," she said walking to the end of her desk closest to him and sitting on it. "I don't want to lie to you anymore."

He looked up at her but remained silent.

"I wanted to tell you earlier, but I didn't really know how to say it..."

She didn't speak for a moment but Gibbs once again just listened not saying a word.

Then suddenly, almost like she was ripping off the band-aid, she blurted out, "I broke rule twelve," and they both knew there was an "again" implied at the end of her sentence.

"It was bound to happen eventually," he said more to himself than to her, "I'm glad you finally told me."

"Wait, you knew?" she replied looking at him confused.

"When you were in the hospital, I didn't leave right away." A wave of realization washed over her. "I guessed after I saw him in your room but I was far away, and I left once I saw that there was someone in there. I didn't really know until your brothers started interrogating everyone trying to figure out who you are dating and then I saw you with him."

"I see, I should have known you would figure out. To be clear though, we were just friends when he came to the hospital; he just couldn't come until late."

"You owe me no explanation. Have you told the rest of the team? They have been trying to figure it out."

"No, you're the first person I told."

They both just stared at each other, as if they were trying to read each other's thoughts, and then after what felt like hours, they both returned to their work without saying another word to one another, except "Good night" when they left.

The next morning, Bishop was hanging out with her brothers when she got a text.

"We need to talk," she said.

"Oh no, she sounds serious."

"I love you guys, but you can't just show up here and inset yourselves in my personal life."

"We're your big brothers; we are supposed to be overprotective."

"Can we at least compromise? I'll be more open if you guys promise to give me space and trust my decisions."

They all looked at each other. "We can agree to that."

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

"Good, because there is someone I'd like you guys to meet," she walked over and let the person at the door in. "This is my boyfriend, Qasim."

"Hello," Qasim says, and all three of the brothers got up and walk over to Bishop and Qasim.

They all just stared at him without saying anything.

"Thank God, we thought it was Gibbs."

They all laughed, Bishop slightly awkwardly, but then Qasim stopped.

"Wait, why would you think that?" he asked, genuinely confused.

"Just because they are so close," one of the brothers said.

"You know how the team is, like a family," Bishop interjected.

"Yeah, yeah, she just told us so much about him when she talked about work and then, of course, after we met him and he spent Thanksgiving with us, we could see that they were really close."

"What?" Qasim asked even more confused.

"Remember how after everything went down with Jake I went home to Oklahoma?" Qasim nodded. "Well, Gibbs came and brought me home, and ended up spending Thanksgiving with my family before we came home."

"Oh, that's cool," Qasim said, clearly happy to be on the same page with everyone else.

After that, they all talked and laughed and hit it off, until Bishop's brothers had to start their drive home.


	26. FortheLoveofLeroyJethroGibbs

Gibbs' first love, the love of his life, Shannon, was a redhead. Maybe that's why he keeps going for redheads. And maybe that's why it never lasts with them. They are a constant reminder of the pain he has suffered for so many years.

He has been married three times since Shannon died and they were all redheads. If he was truly honest with himself, he didn't love any of them. They were just fillers, ways to push through the pain. He has been in a few serious relationships; some real, some as fake as his marriages, but no one truly made him feel the way Shannon did, nobody ever could. Hollis Mann started to make him feel something of the kind, maybe they could have made it work, but he wasn't ready, so he refused to let her in and pushed her away.

Gibbs really doesn't know when he became ready, all he knows is he did, and he has a strong feeling that a certain blond with an affinity for eating 3x as much as a normal human being had something to do with it. He's pretty sure, or he was pretty sure, but now that she is in a relationship with someone else he is positive. She opened him up for the first time in a really long time and without her all he has left is the pain of a wound freshly opened.

He missed her so much. He didn't even care about dating her even though he still loved her. He just wanted her back in his life, she was his best friend, he was more open with her than anyone else, and he lost that. But they can't have that closeness when she was in a relationship with someone else, he wouldn't let it happen,even just being friends would cross a line, there is just too much history between them. And of course he isn't the kind to show his pain, he is strong, he can handle anything, or at least that's what he acts like. He wasn't going to show that he was miserable without her, he has to respect what she wanted and her current real. So he just keeps living his life like it isn't tearing him up inside to see her every day and have to keep his distance. He can't even bury himself in his work to run from the pain because she is an integral part of that too, maybe this is why he should follow his own rules.

He knew that it had to be this way but more than anything he longed for the days when she was 100% there for him, and he was 100% there for her. He lost everything they had just to keep the fact that they had it in the first place a secret. He did take one thing out of their relationship though; he was so done with redheads.


	27. TheStrugglesOfLove

Bishop was a smart and pretty type throughout high school and college. Not super popular but not unpopular. She had a few boyfriends but never anything serious until she met Jake.

Before Jake even told her he was cheating she could feel them separating. He would say that ever since she started at NCIS, they hadn't been the same, but she felt it before that which just continued to worsen after she joined NCIS. She to this day doesn't know what changed or exactly when it changed, but she is certain something did. When she first joined NCIS they seemed to do better but after about a month they went back to whatever the weirdness was, and it never went away again after that.

After Jake, she was so happy to be with Gibbs. He treated her incredibly and was everything she could ask for, but after all the work she had put into her career she wasn't ready to let anything get in the way. She hoped people would understand but wasn't willing to risk it and she had to break up with him before someone found out she was dating her boss. It was gut-wrenching to break up with him especially because she couldn't show it. Nobody knew she had been in a relationship, that was the entire point, so she couldn't tell anyone that she was no longer in a relationship.

Then, in what felt like both an instant and an eternity, she was in a relationship again, with someone else. It was time for her to move on and she was happy, or at least as happy as she could be all things considered. She loved Qasim, she really did but she also was still in love with Gibbs, and that made things... complicated.

Qasim and Bishop both cared a lot about their roles at NCIS, and that kept both of them extremely busy. Their schedules were so unpredictable, and because they are working on different cases, they had trouble finding a time when they were both free. If they did find the time, they would spend time together, but half of the time they were unable to get through a date without one of them being called in. Bishop tried to hang out with friends when she was off, and he wasn't, but they are all friends from when she and Jake were together, married friends. What that meant was they weren't looking to go out for drinks or do any "single people activities," and even if they would, Bishop's schedule made it nearly impossible to make plans in advance, and married people (at least the ones Bishop knows) do not do spontaneity. So most of the time she would just end up sitting at home alone. The hardest part of that wasn't the being alone, it was the not wanting to be alone and knowing that the odds were that Gibbs was also home alone, in his basement working on his boat.

She never wanted to break up with Gibbs; it's just something she had to do, to protect herself. All she could think was that if they had never broken up then she never would have started dating Qasim and never would have fallen for him while still in love with someone else and things would be less confusing. He deserves better than to be in a relationship with someone who is in love with another man, but he also deserves better than to be dumped because of something that has been true since before they even started dating. She was just so conflicted and confused about everything. And it's not like if she broke up with Qasim, she could get back together with Gibbs if he would even take her back. She broke up with him for a reason that is still true and now that everyone knows about her and Qasim they would get a lot more suspicious of her if she just broke up with him out of the blue with no explanation. She couldn't tell anyone about her previous relationship with Gibbs, not even Qasim; it would destroy her reputation.


	28. Broken

Bishop and Qasim were finally starting to find a way to balance work and their relationship so that they could see each other more often even with their busy schedules. He started walking her to her desk some mornings so that they could just talk to each other and appreciate those extra few minutes together. They discovered that they are very similar but also very different. For example, they are both adorably nerdy and need "positive thinking space" to work. However, Bishop's idea of a good thinking space is the library while Qasim's is the forest.

Qasim is working on translating a series of phone calls in Pashto, looking for any hidden meanings in them and he feels really blocked in his office.

The team has started to get used to seeing him around more often, luckily Gibbs is usually off somewhere else not at his desk when Bishop shows up for work so that awkwardness can be avoided. This particular morning he was off in some unknown place per usual, but unusually instead of appearing behind them shortly after Qasim left, Gibbs came out of MTAC and told McGee to read the rest of the team in on "Willoughby." McGee is pleased to no longer have to keep the rest of the team in the dark and everyone else is glad to find out who McGee was acting so weird and distracted all morning so far.

Willoughby is a high-risk operation to catch a suspected terrorist who there is no substantial evidence on. Reeves is deep undercover as the copilot of Chen's plane, in attempts to gather evidence and bring the target, a man named Chen, down. Then the operation is compromised, and Chen has a bomb on the plane remotely detonated as an attempt to kill him. Reeves is nearly killed but luckily saw Chen's right-hand man acting suspicious and jumped out of the aircraft before the explosion. The team attempts to let Chen believe Reeves is dead while he is really only at the hospital with minor injuries, but the news that he is alive leaks. Reeves wants to continue working until they bring Chen down, but Gibbs benches him to keep him safe. The operation is to continue but is moving slowly due to the task force of multiple agencies that are working on it. Gibbs wants to get things done immediately, not wait for the rest of the task force, and Vance gives him the right away to do so but tread lightly because they still need the task force.

Meanwhile, Bishop visits Qasim's office to deliver mail that was mistakenly given to her instead of him due to it being from the NSA.

"I was given to me by mistake," Bishop says as she walks into Qasim's office holding up a package.

"Those would be my newest calls to translate."

"Mhm. So I need to ask you-"

"If I was able to find any hidden meanings in the calls?" Qasim interrupts, "None. All they are doing is talking about trips they've been on: Paris, Amsterdam, Cairo, etc. I really need to get out of this office, maybe take a trip to the forest."

"Actually... I wanted to see if we could reschedule our date from tonight. I'm in the middle of a case and will have to work late if not all night. Speaking of I should get back to work," she starts to leave.

He gets up and begins following her, "Ellie," she stops and turns back towards him, "are you okay?"

"Yeah," she says assuredly but then says, "Yeah, it's nothing," with a little less confidence, then finally brings down her wall and says, "I saw that Reeves put himself as his emergency contact. Why would someone do that?"

"If it helps, I wrote you," Bishop looks at him quizzically, "for my emergency contact I put down your name."

"Really?"

Qasim shrugs, "Maybe Reeves only wrote himself because he has nobody else to write."

Bishop just nods solemnly.

The team concludes that Chen's pilot must have somehow discovered Reeves' plan and tipped Chen off because they have proof of a transmission from the pilot to Chen right before the plane blew up. They believe that Chen is planning and new attack and is working hard to find out more about it so they can stop it, but he and his right-hand man have gone entirely off the grid making tracking their plans extremely difficult.

On the way to talk to the pilot's family in an attempt to get more information on his work with Chen, Bishop begins to explain her concerns about Reeves.

"You have been talking to me about the same thing for the past 10 minutes, yet you still haven't begun to make any sense," Gibbs says, stopping outside of the conference room to give Bishop one last chance to tell him what she is trying to say. He genuinely cares about whatever she finds so important but also doesn't have time to figure her rambling out in the middle of a significant international case.

"What I'm saying is I don't think Reeves has very many friends and out of the ones he does have I am one of the closer ones and yet he never told me he planned on volunteering for a life-threatening operation."

" You're worried about him."

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you just say that in the first place?"

"I thought I did." She says more to herself than to him as she follows him into the conference room."

During their discussion with his wife, they discover that the pilot had flown Chen to the same locations that the people in Qasim's communications were discussing, tying the two cases together. Qasim had mentioned that the people talking in the phone calls he was translating, discussing these locations when he was talking to Bishop the previous day, and she connected the dots. She informed Gibbs of this possible connection, and they both went to visit Qasim in his office to get more information. Gibbs decides this is a relevant similarity between the two cases and asks for copies of Qasim's translations of the calls. He then has Reeves come over to his house to look over them with him since Reeves had a better perspective due to his direct contact with Chen's organization.

While Reeves study Qasim's translations, Gibbs talks to him or more accurately listens.

"I didn't mess this up. I thought over everything I said, and there is no way that I tipped off the pilot to what I was doing."

"Okay."

"I can take care of myself, I don't need you to worry about me."

"I don't, if you want to risk your life then I say that's your business, but Bishop does worry, and I consider that my business."

"Do you know what Bishop refers to you guys as? A family. That's why I signed up for Willoughby because I don't think you guys should have to do missions like that. People who have people shouldn't have to do things like that. I don't have people who will miss me."

"When you think you're alone in the dark, close your eyes and remember the good."

The correspondances refer to Reeves, making it clear that Chen must have known about Willoughby for weeks even months before the explosion, not mere minutes like they thought. And that the correspondences are happening after the task force meetings, and therefore, there is a mole in the task force, the pilot wasn't the leak.

Bishop goes to the library where the ping she had Abby do on Qasim's phone says he is, to deliver the most recent call that he needs to translate.

"Ellie!" Qasim says, looking up from his laptop and seeing her, "What are you doing here?"

"You weren't at your office, and your phone was going straight to voicemail, so I had Abby ping your phone and found out you were here."

"I got pinged?!"

"Mhm-hmm."

"That's so cool!"

"Now why I came was to give you the recordings from last night." She says while handing him a flash drive.

He takes the flash drive, "Oh right."

"You're doing a great job by the way."

"Really?"

"Yeah, we even caught the mole leaking information to our terrorist thanks to a tip you gave us."

"Thank you, that helps. I've been trying to figure out any hidden codes and have come up with nothing."

"But you tried the library."

"I did, and I love it."

"I just had a bunch of plants delivered to your office so that you can have your own little thinking forest."

Qasim stands up and walks over to her grabbing her hands, "Thank you."

Suddenly, gunfire erupts, she dives for the ground, but he is hit before he can do the same. She goes over to him and then calls 911, going with him to the hospital when the ambulance arrives. She is panicking, and it is apparent she loves him very much and doesn't want to lose him.

They take him back for surgery, and she can't go with him, so she calls and updates Gibbs. He tells the rest of the team, then sends Ducky to be with her, so she isn't alone. Everyone else continues working even more determined now to bring down Chen.

They discover that having been told by the mole that Qasim was translating the communications, Chen sent his second-hand man to kill Qasim so that Qasim couldn't translate the most recent correspondence. Gibbs is putting pressure on the team to be quicker and give him information immediately wasting no time before getting to the point. Abby and McGee work together and prove that the second-hand man did the shooting, so Gibbs has Quinn and Torres go get him, but he kills himself to avoid them getting any information from him.

With no immediate action, they can take against Chen, Gibbs, and Reeves go to the hospital to provide Bishop support and see how Qasim is. When they get to the waiting room, Bishop is in Qasim's room, so Ducky informs them that Qasim has been declared braindead. Gibbs has to sit down to process this information and looks like he is trying to think what he should do next, what would be the best way to support Bishop right now. Ducky tells Reeves that Bishop has been asking for him, so he goes to Qasim's hospital room.

He doesn't say anything just walks over towards her, and she gets up to meet him halfway holding up the flash drive she had gone to the library to bring Qasim.

"The last recording he was supposed to translate," she says as she hands him the flash drive.

He takes it but asks, "Why are you giving this to me?"

"I don't know why but I know you are willing to do anything to get Chen... so am I."

He starts to leave, then turns back and asks, "Would you like me to stay with you?"

"No... I just... um... I don't know how to say goodbye to him."

Maybe you could try closing your eyes and remembering the good."

"Did you learn that from Gibbs?"


	29. Findingthepieces

Bishop only took a week off work to mourn, and it wasn't even to mourn actually; she only took the time off to make Qasim's funeral arrangements and clean out his apartment. As soon as she got back, her focus was on finding Chen, and everyone else's focus was on repeatedly asking her how she was doing. Her consistent answer is, "Fine, ready to get back to work," and she really believed that was true. Yet she pulled Reeves aside to ask for intel on the hunt for Chen as soon as she got to NCIS.

"Hey, any news on Chen?"

"Gibbs told you not to get involved, but I'm working on finding a translator I can trust to show Qasim's flash drive you gave me."

"Okay," she said, nodding and walking away to her desk.

She continued to work like she usually would, with the addition of constantly checking up on Reeves, in attempts to get more information, every chance she had without people noticing too much. Luckily the team was somewhat preoccupied working, so they didn't notice exactly what she was doing; however, they were not too preoccupied to notice that something was going on. Quinn could especially see that her mind was on revenge, but never expected her to act on the impulse.

Gibbs, however, could see it coming from a mile away, he just had to find the right way to address this concern, in a way that will prevent her from making a mistake not push her towards it; he himself knowing what wanting that revenge felt like. Unlike everyone else, Gibbs did not push her and repeatedly ask how she was doing. Did he think she was okay? No, but he also didn't believe repeatedly asking her how she was doing would fix that. For now, he needed to keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't do anything stupid.

Reeves was very skeptical about how involved Bishop should be because Gibbs had made it very clear to him that Bishop was not to get involved in the case; yet when he finally found a translator for the information on the flash drive, she was the first person he told about the song lyrics the communications translated out to along with all other information he had. He still insisted, however, on following the leads alone, up until he found something and then immediately got her more involved. At that point, Bishop was on a case but quickly came up with a lie to tell Gibbs, not that he bought it, and he let her leave.

Reeves and Bishop were able to acquire another lead to run down, and once again, Reeves insisted on following it alone, telling her to go back to NCIS before anyone got suspicious about how long she had been gone, unfortunately, people were already getting a little suspicious. But she didn't listen and go back to work; unfortunately, work came to her. The NCIS case and the lead she and Reeves were tracking down led to the same location at the same time. Which meant Bishop got caught doing the exact thing she was told not to, working on the Chen case, forcing Gibbs to face his suspicions.

That night Gibbs decides to call Bishop, knowing she is meeting with the director about getting involved in the case after being ordered to stand down so he can leave a voicemail saying to come over when she is free. After she got out of her meeting and listened to the voicemail, she went right over to his house to try and get it over with and goes down to his basement where he is.

"If you had me come here so you can lecture me, can you just do it in the morning?"

"That's not why I had you come over." Bishop gives him a look of disbelief, "I want to talk to you as a friend, not as your boss, and I thought a less formal location would be better for that."

"So, you are gonna lecture me."

"Not right now. Right now, I just want to see how you are doing."

"Why does everyone keep asking me that? I'M FINE."

"We ask because people aren't usually fine when their boyfriends were just murdered."

"Well, I'm not most people."

"I know." Gibbs opens his arms for a hug, but she just looks at him skeptically. He nods and gives her an understanding look, so she walks over and accepts his embrace. She is stiff at first but slowly melts in his arms. His embrace makes her feel safe like she is home. It feels good to have her in his arms, even if it's because of another guy. She starts to cry, and he holds her tighter, rubbing her back softly to comfort her. After a while, she pulls away, and they share an understanding look not saying anything. He walks over to the stools in the corner pulling one out for each of them, and they both sit.

"I just need to find Chen."

"And what exactly do you plan to do once you find him?"

"I don't know."

"Well, you clearly have some idea of what you think will give you closure, and it takes more than finding him to do that." They exchange looks, a silent conversation telling Gibbs what he already suspected, "Let me warn you, revenge will not help."

"Everybody keeps saying that, but there is no way to actually know."

"When my wife and daughter were murdered, I thought that making the man responsible pay would lessen the pain and feeling of hopelessness that comes with this type of loss. So I hunted him down and shot him. It didn't take away the pain, but it did leave me with the weight of what I'd done. A burden that I have to carry with me for the rest of my life; I do not wish a similar burden on you."

"Don't worry about me, Chen being dead won't keep me up at night. We aren't the same."

"I know that we are different, and I can't guarantee that you will feel the same way I did. I just want you to be careful, who died isn't going to play a factor, you will only feel the weight of taking another life. You've felt that before when we were in Afganistan when we met Qasim for the first time. Remember how that tore you up, and that time you had to keep all of us safe. Imagine what it would feel like to commit cold-blooded murder."

"Chen dying would save lives, he is a dangerous man."

"So was the man in Afganistan, it didn't stop you from feeling the weight of it then, why would it be different now."

"I'm a different person then I was back then. I'll keep your concerns in mind but no promises that if the opportunity arises to take Chen out. I can promise, however, that I will never be okay with standing aside and letting Chen get away with more horrendous deeds."

"I've been told, we don't have enough evidence to hold him yet."

"So you are just going to stand there and let him get away with it." Gibbs gives her a look. "You aren't just standing there. You've got a plan."

"Working on one. I've kinda hit a wall, thought maybe you could help."

"What do you got?"

"Well, I was thinking we arrest Chen anyway and worry about what comes next afterward. Rule 18."

"That works for me, but we will have to find him first."

They hear the sound of Gibbs' front door opening.

"You come alone."

She nods.


	30. PuttingthePiecesBackTogether

They both walk up the stairs, guns drawn. Finding Chen standing at Gibbs' kitchen table facing away from them.  


"Hello Agent Bishop," he says then turns to face them, "Agent Gibbs. Why don't you put down your guns so we can talk?"

"Bishop," is all Gibbs says, knowing that will be enough to tell her what he wants her to do.

She returns her gun to its holster and searches him, slamming him onto the table to do so.

"Qasim must have liked it rough," Chen retorts with an amused tone.

Which maddens not only Bishop but also Gibbs, both of whom were already fighting back the urge to hurt him.

"Heard you were looking for me. Apparently, the airport is crawling with NCIS agents."

"That's what happens when you murder one of us," Bishop snaps in reply.

"I have not killed anyone," Chen states with a calm, almost cold tone.

"Why are you in my house?" Gibbs asks Chen angrily.

"Why do you think?"

"You want to be arrested." Gibbs answers.

"You cannot arrest me."

"People keep telling me that, but let's see what happens. Bishop."

Bishop goes over and starts to cuff him. "Better to ask forgiveness than permission."

"I assure you, you will get neither," Chen says, finally starting to get upset. "I am not the enemy."

"Well, that's news to me." She retorts.

"Then apparently you haven't heard, we are on the same team now," Chen says, clearly enjoying being a step ahead of them.

"When were you going to tell me?" Gibbs demands as he storms into the Director's office.

"Tell you what, exactly?" Director Vance turns around in his chair to ask, clearly confused.

"That Chen is working with the CIA. How long have you known?"

"He didn't know." Says Congresswoman Fleming as she enters the room.

"What is my agent talking about?" Vance asks.

"Great question." She replies, looking at Gibbs quizzically.

"Chen came to my house. Told me he's working with the CIA now."

"Start talking." The Director commands.

"Neither of you are authorized." She replies and then quickly changes her mind knowing that neither of them is going to care about whether or not they are authorized, and it became their business when Chen showed up at Gibbs' house. "Chen came to us with an offer. We only just made a deal with him today," She attempts to appease them with the information that she hasn't known for very long, either. "There is a Syrian warlord, we have been trying to locate for years, that Chen has done business with the past. Chen has offered to help us find him."

"So just like that, he's our best bud?" Gibbs asks no less angry.

"You know the saying: The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Sometimes that's just the best policy," She answers.

"Chen is a suspected terrorist who has tried to kill two of my agents, succeeding on one account," Vance replies angrily.

"The Warlord Chen is helping us catch is responsible for the deaths of countless soldiers. We NEED his help. I get it, I do, and we are not going to let Chen walk, just put a pin in the investigation until-" Fleming explains, hardly reducing either man's anger.

"You get what you want," Gibbs interrupts.

"What we all want. Until we catch this Warlord-"

"Yeah, pin, I got it," Gibbs interrupts her again, storming out.

Reeves enters Bishop's apartment to find her angrily cleaning.

"What are we going to do? We can't just let him get away."

"That's precisely what we have been ordered to do. Gibbs has just let you back on the case. Don't ruin it now."

"I'm not afraid of Gibbs," Bishop states, clearly getting angrier as the conversation goes.

"Well, I might be a little afraid of Gibbs. And regardless, I think that Congresswoman is right."

"How can you say that?"

"That warlord is destabilizing an entire region."

"That Warlord is a two-bit player in Aleppo that I monitored while I was at the NSA. I know his entire network. This is a bad call. We have a coded message from Chen on a suspected terrorist attack, and we can't do anything about it because he's the CIA's lapdog? That's insane."

"Well, you say you are familiar with this Warlord. Let's find him, and then the CIA won't need Chen."

"That could take months. I can't eat, I can't sleep, I am NOT slowing down until Chen is off the street!"

Lowering his voice and softening his tone to try to calm her down. "I hear you. I do. But this is a marathon, not a sprint Ellie. You either have to be willing to make the sacrifices and commit to the long haul or get out of the race."

Bishop attempts to remind herself why she is in this and, therefore, why it is worth it to commit to this no matter how long it takes, remembering Qasim, and in the process remembers an argument they had.

"That's it!"

"What's it?"

"I had an argument with Qasim, and he was trying to tell me the world isn't reducible to zeros and ones, and I got bratty and pointed out that the awful music they were playing at the bowling alley was all zeros and ones."

"I'm sorry." He looks at her, confused still.

"I think I know how to crack Chen's code."

"Then what are we doing here. Let's get back to Abby's lab and crack it."

"We assumed that the message was encrypted, but it was really just hidden. It's like hiding a key under your doormat, once you know the secret you are in," Abby explains.

"You figured out Chen's secret," Gibbs states.

"We did. The message appeared to be random song lyrics, but once you convert it to binary its a computer program," Bishop continues the explanation.

Just them McGee bursts in, "Not a program, a virus. A computer virus that exploits the vulnerability in generators in older electrical plants, causing them to do that," He says, showing all of them a video of a generator causing an explosion that takes out the whole building.

"This must be Chen's plan to take out the electrical grid," Bishop states.

"Alright, let's go," Gibbs says, leaving Abby's lab towards the elevator with McGee right behind him. Bishop heads the other direction.

"Where are you going?" Abby asks.

"Forgot something in my car."

As the team works to figure out Chen's next move and how to stop the virus, Congresswoman Fleming enters the bullpen.

"So much for your pin," The Director points out.

"We made a calculated bet," She replies.

"Well, you bet wrong," Gibbs pitches in.

"Yeah, and your Agent Bishop was right. Which is why I'd like her to brief the Joint Chiefs. When is she back?" Fleming asks.

Gibbs looks over to Bishop's desk realizing she still hasn't come up from Abby's lab. He asks the rest of the team, "Where did she go?"

"I just bumped into her in the parking lot," Flemming answers.

They pull up the parking lot surveillance and watch Bishop quite literally bump into the Congresswoman, switching their phones when she does so.

"McGee, locate that phone," Gibbs orders.

McGee was able to locate the general direction she was heading before turning the phone off, and the last thing she used the phone for, sending a text to Chen. Gibbs knowing that can't mean anything good, leaves with Quinn and Reeves to try and follow her and find where she is going. They drive to the last spot they could track her to before she turned off the cell.

"Okay, what's her plan?" Gibbs asks, looking around.

"She might not have one," Reeves answers.

"She always has a plan!" Gibbs insists.

Quinn looks at a map to find a radio tower not too far from that spot, "I think I've got something."

They immediately take off, knowing that's where she will be.

Bishop, already at the Radio Tower, looks at a card she had made for Qasim, reminding herself what she is doing all this for. Then she gets out of her truck and goes inside the Tower soon followed by Chen.

"Hello Agent Bishop, I was expecting the Congresswoman," Chen says when he sees her.

"She sends her regards."

"I see. How did you know I'd come alone?"

"Because you're a rat. And if your people found out you are working with the CIA, you'd be a dead rat."

"You did not come here to talk business, this is personal."

"No," She says while drawing her gun, "this is pleasure."

"I am not responsible for what happened to your boyfriend. He is. Qasim made his choice."

"And I've made mine." She pulls out her phone, calls someone, and says, "I've got him," then hangs up. She then makes Chen go into another room, still pointing her gun at him, and handcuff himself to the generator.

"You have nothing on me. NCIS is wasting its time."

"I didn't call NCIS. I called the Syrians. Apparently, that Warlord you are helping the CIA catch found out you sold him out. He's been looking for you. Some of his contacts are on the way. Good luck with that." She starts to walk away.

Chen begins to fight against the cuffs trying to break free. "Wait, you cannot do this. They're going to kill me."

She turns around and replies, "If you're lucky."

"Name your price."

"Actually, I have a better idea." She replies, pulling a floppy disk out of her pocket.

"What is that?"

"The code you created to blow up all those generators, just like the one you are cuffed too." She replies, half inserting the disk into the slot on the generator.

"You set me up!"

"I'm not responsible for what happens to you. You've made your choices. Now it's time for you to make one more." She says, leaving.

Just as she gets outside the building, Gibbs pulls up, immediately asking, "Bishop, you alright?"

Then the Tower explodes.

"What's happened?" Quinn asks.

"Chen made his choice."

Later that night, Bishop walks down the stairs to Gibbs' basement. "How much trouble am I in?" she asks, avoiding eye contact.

"With NCIS? None."

She steps closer, looking up to meet his eye, "And with you?" she asks, but he doesn't say anything just keeps working on his boat without breaking their eye contact. "Look… I don't blame you if you want me gone. I broke your trust and pretty much did exactly what you were worried I'd do. BUT I also did exactly what you would do in my position, and I would do it again, given the same choice."

This time it was Gibbs avoiding eye contact, "Well, then we got a problem." He says then meets her eye before continuing, "Going rogue has a cost… and it is not cheap."

"I know."

"No, you don't, but you will."

She pauses to process what he is telling her then pulls her card for Qasim out, "I got this for Qasim, had it with me the night he was shot, didn't get a chance to give it to him. I can't stop looking at it."

Gibbs nods, understanding and takes the card from her. Then looks up at her as a way of asking permission to look at it; she nods. He opens it to find that all it says is "YES" in big letters. He understands immediately, and it hurts him, but he does an excellent job of hiding it. He gives her a curious look to tell her she can talk about it if she wants.

She begins to explain, "He proposed to me on his birthday and then took me to the bowling alley where we had our first date. I was hesitant to give him an answer, worried about all the things that could go wrong, using facts to distance myself from what I was feeling. We fought about it, and he tried to convince me that not everything can be reduced to 0s and 1s, and I pointed out that the music at the bowling alley was just 0s and 1s, which I remembered earlier that is how I figured out Chen's code. He was very gracious about how I was processing and told me to take my time to figure out my answer. I did, and by the time I made my decision, it was too late. He died, not knowing my answer. Not knowing how much I loved him."

"He knew El. He knew how much you loved him."


End file.
